Delusions of Loveless
by Shadou-sama
Summary: Loveless X-over. Shonen-ai. Spoilers for Vol.9. No one wants to find the Loveless Fighter. And he doesn't want to be found. After all, spell battles, word spells? That has to be crazy talk.


﻿ **Delusions of Loveless  
by Shadou-sama**

Series: Beyblade/Loveless Cross-Over  
Word Count: 5488 words  
Summary: No one wants to find the Loveless Fighter. And he doesn't want to be found. After all, spell battles, word spells? That has to be crazy talk. SPOILERS FOR LOVELESS Vol 9

In case you haven't read or watched Loveless by Yun Kouga:  
There is a SPOILER warning for Loveless up to Volume 9.  
If you haven't read Loveless at all, you might not understand this. I will try to give a summary to help, but even so, I really recommend reading the manga. The story is really quite fantastic.  
In Loveless, some people are paired together from birth and given special names, like Loveless, Zero, Breathless, etc. One of the pair is called a Fighter, and they can use word spells (basically, very lovely and exact prose) to attack and defend in a fight. The other person is the Sacrifice, who receives the damage from the opponent's attacks. The Sacrifice's job is also to control the Fighter, and is the one to give demands. Together, they fight others for a goal that has not yet been specified in the manga. Also, the bond between Fighter and Sacrifice is so strong that usually if a Sacrifice dies, then the Fighter will kill him or herself or at the very least not take on another Sacrifice (especially since there is only one Fighter and one Sacrifice to a name, and partners without the same name have half of their original strength).  
Also important is that virgins have cat ears and tails, which they lose when... well, they're not virgins any more. This assures of the fact that Soubi hasn't done anything that is punishable by a lengthy jail sentence with Ritsuka.  
_Ritsuka_: the protagonist, aged 12, also known as Loveless. He is Seimei's younger brother, and the new Sacrifice of Soubi. He is the most special person in the world to Seimei, and now Soubi.  
_Soubi_: university student, the Blank Fighter (meaning whoever writes their secret arm in his skin claims him as their Fighter, which is why he has the name Beloved carved into his neck). He was ordered by Seimei, his previous Sacrifice, to obey Ritsuka after his supposed death. Soubi is considered the best Fighter when paired with Seimei, because Soubi follows the orders of his Sacrifice without any thought. Even though he is older than his Sacrifices, he is the submissive and likes being controlled. This part isn't really necessary for the story, but is a fun fact. Because he is the Blank Fighter, he has no Sacrifice that is destined for him, so... well, that inspires the last little bit of this story.  
_Seimei_: also known as Beloved, he is the Sacrifice for previously Soubi and now Nisei. He faked his own death and abandoned Soubi to join up with his real Fighter, Nisei. Ritsuka is his younger brother, and Seimei believes that the world only includes he and Ritsuka, with possibly Nisei and Soubi as pets.  
_Nisei_: the Beloved Fighter, and is psychotic. He's Seimei's dog (although human).  
_Loveless Fighter_: no one knows who it is, yet. Which is the purpose of this fanfic.

Here lies the actual story:

--

_Delusion_.

An unreal image presented to the bodily or mental vision. A false belief regarding the self or persons or objects outside of the self that persists despite the facts. Anything agreeably fascinating and charming, like witchery, enchantments and glamours.

_Illusion_.

Something that deceives by producing a false or misleading impression of reality. The act of deluding.

Delusion.

Illusion.

That's all that it could be. Rei desperately tried to convince himself of that as he scampered through the night time Tokyo crowds. He must have snapped back in his home town, and was lying there with Mao and Li looking over his vacant form as he dreamed of this – this –

None of this was real! How could it be? How could his life since leaving the White Tiger Village have actually happened? Real life wasn't like this! It couldn't be like this!

Could it?

--

Rei hurried through the hotel hallway, pushing the meal cart, trying to ignore the thumping and the groaning and the moaning coming from behind all those doors that both of his ears – the cat ears that marked him as a virgin and his regular human ears – picked up in duality. He had thought that he would have grown used to the sounds by now. Or at least, he wouldn't blush like he was a twelve year old school girl.

He had been working at the Aoe Hotel for a year now as a bellboy. While not exactly a high-end job, or even a high paying one, it was still better than the other kinds of jobs that the hotel offered.

_Date Club_.

A service providing wealthy men with beautiful escorts for social gatherings, companions for private dinners or for in bed.

In truth, Aoe Hotel was really just a very expensive brothel that featured beautiful and stunning men. From what Rei had overheard from some of the customers, Aoe Hotel even had an international reputation, bringing in men from all over the world to spend a night with one of the companions.

To be honest, when Owner had first explained what the hotel was really for, Rei had been scared. Who wouldn't be? He had just been rescued from the overzealous seduction attempts of a strange man, only to be offered a job at the brothel.

Just remembering what it had been like with that man... His hands on him... had felt gross. He had wanted nothing more than to wash his mouth on with soap after that forced kiss. A slimy snake in his mouth... Rei shivered, as he remembered. It had felt a lot like when Mao had tried to kiss him back when they were engaged.

But Owner hadn't really been in interested in Rei in that area. He calmly explained that while yes, Rei was attractive and selling his cat ears could get him a small fortune, Owner wasn't interested in forcing fifteen year old boys to sell their bodies. That had made Rei really happy. It still did. After all, it would have been really easy to take advantage of him. He had been a beaten, dead broke Chinese alien with little knowledge of the Japanese language hiding from the authorities that would have otherwise protected him from men taking advantage of him. He wasn't that naïve any more.

Since then, Owner had taken an interest in teaching Rei Japanese. Rei didn't mind at all. With Owner's help, he had become fluent in only a few months. Now, he continued on learning the language, hoping to master it. After all, he had to prove to Owner that he had been worth rescuing, had been worth teaching.

Rei stopped the cart in front of Room 616, and knocked on the door, holding the doorknob as he did since the door had been left ajar. "Room service," he announced. He heard a male voice beckoning him in, so he opened the door. Companions always did that after the deed, too tired or too trapped to get out of bed.

He easily manoeuvred the cart into the room. At least after a whole year working there, even if he wasn't used to the other services offered, this service was almost second nature to him. That's what he thought, until he looked up at the guest –

Who was standing _buck naked_ in the middle of the room, looking at Rei over his shoulder. Rei stopped short in his tracks, staring at the young man. Usually he delivered before the men took their clothes off or after they put them back on, as to not disrupt the liaisons. Naked young men staring at him with a bored pout were not on the menu.

And Rei couldn't help but stare. The young man looked to be about his age, but with smoothed back crimson hair and without his cat ears and cat tail. His skin shone ivory white over a lithe form, which, while muscled, was still incredibly thin. And his ass --

Oh, kami, his ass.

"You broke him," a deep male voice said from behind him.

Rei jumped, nearly tripping over his feet. Propping the door open was another young man, about the same age and also earless. However, this one had long gray and navy hair that swept over his violet eyes, his lips in an irritating smirk, and was also fully dressed in a black navy and black men's kimono.

"How did I know they'd send such a delicate boy who still has his cat ears?" the redhead asked, turning around to face both of them. Rei desperately turned his eyes upwards, fully knowing that all the blood was rushing into his face. Well, that's where he hoped it was rushing.

Rei yipped when thin, cream coloured arms wrapped around his shoulders. That red-haired head rested on his shoulder. Oh fuck! This was definitely inappropriate touching! Inappropriate! Aoe Hotel had rules about this sort of thing.

"Regardless of the little virgin, Tala, you're supposed to be already dressed," the clothed one said. Rei was starting to get angry. So, what? Because he hadn't had... well, that, he wasn't worth anything? It was okay for random naked men to lounge on him? "The performance starts in an hour. Get moving."

Tala just looked darkly down on the white yukata on the bed, the pale blue obi recklessly tossed over it. "This is a waste of time –"

The clothed one stormed up to them, sandwiching Rei between their chests. He heard a gasp, and managed to turn his head between the two bodies. The clothed man had his hand gripping the redhead's hair in a rather painful looking position.

"I want to go," he snarled.

"But your grandfather--"

"Fuck him! We have whatever time we want out of his grasp while we look for some stupid kid. And if going to see kabuki will make this trip last a bit longer..." he trailed off.

"Then order me to, Kai," Tala said, his intense blue eyes issuing a challenge.

"You seem to prefer to follow Grandfather's--"

"Order me," Tala demanded, grabbing the other man's arms. That action brought the three of them even closer together, and Rei gasped, trying to bring in air to his squished lungs.

"Get into your kimono," Kai said, giving Tala a nasty twist on his hair. Rei felt a pang go out to the redhead. He knew how much hair pulling hurt, especially since his hair fell down to his ankles so often enough became a target. Wait... why did he feel sorry when they were both practically molesting him? "Cat Ears," Kai snapped, and it took Rei a moment to realize that the man was now not ignoring his presence. "Help him into his clothes."

Rei choked. "H-Help--"

They released each other almost simultaneously, and Rei nearly dropped to his knees at the sudden loss of structure. Seriously, they had been so tight together that he didn't even need his legs to stay up.

"Yes, Cat Ears, help me," Tala said, smirking as well. Lovers' quarrel over, now that they were both back to teasing him.

He glanced from the kimono lying on the bed, to the naked man behind him. That would require... getting close to him...

Oh, fuck, this was going to be a long night.

--

"We should be searching for Loveless," Tala stated as they sat down in the first row of the theatre. He spoke in Russian, even though there was a healthy buzz of talking around them to cover their soft voices. Caution, however, cost less than mistakes. There was no reason to be overheard when they could prevent it completely.

"Tala," Kai said in a warning voice.

"Your grandfather will be angry if we take to long," he continued. Kai always seemed to forget the punishments that Voltaire loved to dole out when things didn't go the exact way he planned. "He really wants that Blank Fighter."

Kai didn't answer for a moment. "It doesn't matter how soon we get the Loveless Fighter. Yesterday or next week or next year. The Loveless Sacrifice isn't going to drop everything for a Fighter he just met. He is called Loveless for a reason."

"Sans Amour," Tala murmured. "Without love, without feelings..."

To a certain extent, the pairs tended to reflect their names. Tala knew that even he and Kai did. Heartless – they were emotionless bastards who acted ruthlessly in their own favour. Well, Kai did that. Tala had to act in both of their interests, especially in Kai's. That's what being a Fighter was.

"Besides," Kai said. "Loveless isn't going to abandon his current Fighter. Not after they've bonded, not even for a Fighter he shares a name with."

"That's the point, isn't it?" Tala said, shrugging. "The Loveless Sacrifice will bring the Blank Fighter with him, and then Voltaire will have both."

"That's if the Blank Fighter follows along without a fight," Kai pointed out.

But Tala knew that was wrong, although he didn't want to admit it to the other man. Fighters were trained to obey their Sacrifices' commands. Even he was a slave to this, and he wasn't even sure he wanted it any other way.

Before Kai... he had been lost. Alone. He had no one else. His family, if he could really call them that, scorned him and sold him for a pittance to Kai's grandfather. Strangers just assumed that he was a thieving street urchin, and that whatever violence he received he deserved. His training with Boris felt like just one long blur of pain and torture and hurt. He had been broken.

Then he met Kai. For once in his life, he had a purpose, a reason to exist, to be Kai's Fighter. He was never going to be alone again. The two of them rarely went anywhere any more without the other. He had someone now. He belonged to Kai. And he would follow Kai to the ends of the Earth.

Tala knew this, but like hell was he ever going to admit it out loud. Kai would think it was pathetic, although he did still hold out one small hope that the other man secretly felt the same way. However, Kai's inability to fathom how a Fighter would feel, how they would follow their beloved Sacrifice anywhere, indicated how he so did not understand their bond.

The Blank Fighter, if he really did care about the Sacrifice as all Fighters must feel about their Sacrifices, would follow Loveless into Voltaire's hands. That, or suffer in that terrible loneliness again.

Then again, maybe Kai did realize one thing. He knew how the Sacrifice would suffer in the hands of his grandfather. He had lived through it, after all. Loveless was only a kid, too, like Kai had been when he had first met Tala. Although this Sacrifice would be much more innocent than Kai had been, who had grown up under the tutelage of his grandfather. Voltaire would ruin Loveless's innocence, completely break him to his will. This Blank Fighter would realize Voltaire's true purpose for him, unless he was as completely naïve as his Sacrifice, and want to protect his Sacrifice from that at all costs.

Could Tala do the same?

Ignoring the crowds, Tala leaned out of his chair with his arm around Kai's shoulder. He kissed him, and it seemed like Kai was in a mood to ignore him completely in his irritation. But after a moment, the other man kissed him back, and Tala relaxed.

The play started, and Tala turned his attention to the stage. Maybe he would learn some new, interesting words.

--

_Okonomiyaki_.

A Japanese dish comprising of a pan-fried batter cake and various toppings, like octopus, squid, cheese, or mochi. Infamous in Osaka.

Rei stumbled through the park... of all the freaking demands! Where was he supposed to find okonomiyaki at this time of night? The late night cooks would have been more than happy to make some at the hotel. Hell, Rei would have gladly put on an apron to prepare the dish himself. But no, it had to be from an authentic okonomiyaki restaurant. At least the companion, who always greeted Rei with a smile whenever they met, had looked apologetic when relaying the order.

_First class service_.

Running around at midnight, looking for random items of food or souvenirs that clients just absolutely had to have at rather inconvenient times which would be forgotten by the client thirty seconds after ordering.

And what was with okonomiyaki? That was a speciality of Osaka, not Tokyo. In Osaka, maybe Rei had a chance of finding an authentic okonomiyaki bar that served food that fit with the high standards of Aoe Hotel at midnight. And even if he did eventually find one, he would most likely to be yelled at by the client for the slow service and told that it was no longer wanted, because the guest had actually forgotten he'd ordered it. Such things had happened to him more than once before.

Rei sighed. This was a no-win situation.

Hmm... maybe Rei should just retreat and lie about where he got the okonomiyaki. That would be the sane thing to do. He had, after all, been searching long enough that it would look legitimate. But no, if he was found out, if the client complained to Owner that he had outright lied to a client _and_ failed to fulfill the clientelle's demands...

That was not an option.

However...

Rei stopped in his tracks. There was another way... however improbable it really was. Magic didn't really exist... did it? Still, when he said things out loud and believed them to be true...

Thinking it through his head, as haiku style seemed to work best, he finally said, "Around this bend lies / An okonomiyaki / Bar with its lights on."

He existed the park, turning left at the gate. When his eyes fell onto the orange lantern at the end of the block, his eyes lit up and his lips burst into a smile. At the end of the block was exactly what he was looking for. An okonomiyaki restaurant, with a lantern still outside, beckoning late night customers to them. Thank the kami!

Fifteen minutes later, he existed with a bento box filled with okonomiyaki created to the guest's specifications. The staff had even been friendly, offering extra toppings for no extra price. He couldn't help the grin on his face, or the way his tail danced merrily behind him. Once he got this back, he'd be off for the night. No all-night pancake hunt for him! Rei could practically feel his bed beckon to him.

As soon as he hit the park, though, his fur stood on edge, ears plastered to his head, goosebumps running up his arms. There was something in the park, something demonic...

No, that was stupid. He shook his head. Just because he said a few haiku that turned out to be true, didn't mean that such things were real. Even the elders in White Tiger Village didn't believe in magic and demons. He trudged on through.

"Hello, Loveless."

Rei screamed, falling backward onto his ass and the bento flying over his head. Breathing heavily, he stared as the black-haired boy somersaulted from the tree. That boy had hung upside down right into Rei's face. He was dangerous, Rei knew instantly. The boy crouched down between the Chinese boy's knees, grinning darkly. He wanted to strike out at him, but his body was frozen. What good were martial arts when he couldn't even move his body to run?

"Nisei, hold him," said a somewhat exasperated voice from beside Rei.

He jumped again, nearly kicking the man with the long black hair as he tried to get away from the new voice. Instead, the black-haired man neatly grabbed Rei by his wrists, pinning him down, his legs holding Rei's down.

Oh crap, the boy didn't have cat ears.

A new face appeared beside the man holding him down. Also black-haired, but this new man's hair was shorter and curlier. What relieved Rei even more was that this new man had a pair of sleek black cat ears in the midst of that wavy hair.

It wouldn't be like that night when he had met Owner –

Unless they had grabbed him so that this new man could lose his cat ears. He had heard of that happening on the News. Young girls and boys with cat ears getting raped so that their attacker could lose their own ears. A desperate move, but one was always treated like a kid when one still has cat ears. Not that Rei minded. Being looked at as a child meant being overlooked by Aoe Hotel's clientelle. Well, except for the men who collected those ears...

Pay attention to the threatening men, Rei scolded himself, and forget work for one minute! Although speaking of work, where did his okonomiyaki go? His night's work, lost –

Get a hold of yourself, Kon!

And for that matter, move! At least struggle!

"So you're Loveless's Fighter," the cat eared man said.

"What?" Rei asked. Fighter? Loveless? Oh wait, that's what the other one – Nisei – had called out when 'greeting' him. "What are you talking about?"

The man smiled. It was slow developing, which made Rei's heart go cold, as it blossomed into a happy smile. "Somewhere on your body is written the word Loveless in English, right?"

Wait – Li! Li had noticed something like that in the baths a long time ago. A weird scarring in an... awkward place on his body. But whether it said Loveless or not, he didn't know. Neither of them knew any English.

"You even used a word spell tonight," the man continued. "We know. We felt it. That's how we found you."

Word... spell? What was he saying... The haiku!

"What are you talking about?" Rei demanded.

The man, however ignored his question. "Unfortunately, I can't allow you to live. If Ritsuka were to meet you, he'd never be just mine."

What? Ritsuka? Wait! What! They were going to kill him? So that he won't meet this Ritsuka person?

"Nisei, let him go," the man ordered, sounding much like a man talking to his dog. Nisei immediately obeyed, but not without a twist to his wrists that made his skin scream in pain. "Stand up," the man said, with the same tone as before, but Rei didn't think that he was speaking to Nisei any more. He also didn't think that Nisei would be any kinder to him if he disobeyed.

Warily, Rei stood up, taking a few steps back from the two. He should be running. There was a time to fight, and then there was a time for flight, and Rei didn't think that now was the time to fight. He'd had that opportunity already, and his body had refused to attack. Though, flight might also be impossible as his feet stood rooted to the ground.

"Nisei, kill him," the man said.

The long haired man jumped to his feet happily. "I declare a spell battle!"

Rei felt a shiver run through him. A strange power surrounded the area, running over his skin like an electric feather.

"Say, 'I accept,'" the man ordered.

It was pushing in on him... and Rei had never felt so alone.

He had always been alone, even if he had been with other people. Li had never left his side for all the time that he had stayed in White Tiger Village, but there were just so many things that Rei had been unable to share with him. Like that he had never felt that way about a girl, that Li seemed to have in abundance.

Mao had been in love with him, constantly declaring her affections, but he had never honestly cared. He hadn't loved her, and had always been wandering how quickly he could squirm out of her grasp. He never could accept that they were friends with him because they liked him. No, their friendship was most likely his good looks, in the case of Mao, or the fact that possibilities were limited in the small isolated villages like they had lived in.

He had thought that that had been alone. But he could handle that alone. This new kind of alone pressed in on him, took hold of his heart and gave it a tight squeeze.

The man snapped again, "Say that you accept!"

Because he didn't know what to do... or what else he could manage to do, Rei nodded with his ears pinned to his head and his eyes clenched shut. "I accept."

"Good boy." This man... treated everyone like they were his dog. Now Rei was just his dog. He was everyone's dog now.

Nisei said, "Red jewels blossom / As twenty thousand needles / Pierce that Chinese skin."

Rei screamed when streaks of light flashed through his body. Like Nisei's word, the pain felt like needles had been stuck all over his body all at once. He fell to his knees whimpering.

"This won't take long, Seimei," he heard Nisei assure the man. "He's so weak. Nothing like Soubi."

"Concentrate on the job," Seimei said coldly.

Even Rei flinched at the words. It was little wonder that this Seimei still had his cat ears. Unless he was being denied by this Ritsuka --

He didn't get to finish his thought, as pain once again engulfed him. He hadn't even heard Nisei's words, but the veins in his temple throbbed so hard, like an incredibly fast migraine. He gasped, and gritted his teeth, refusing to cry out again. They really were going to kill him – and nobody would even believe he was murdered!

When it subsided, Rei found himself once again lying on the ground. Leather manacles had clasped around his wrists. His hand twitched, and the silver chain attached to it slithered like a snake.

"Again!"

Seimei's voice rang out clear in the pounding silence, and Rei cringed as it brought back memories of the previous... word spell, or whatever it was. It didn't matter any longer if his body could move through the pain – he was bloody restrained to the ground.

"Lightning streaks through skin / As well as it does through sky / Singeing all the nerves."

When Rei found himself not to be the one crying out, Rei realized that while the voice was familiar, it was not Nisei's. Rolling over, gasping at the leftover pain, he stared at the newcomers.

"The last battle over / We declare a spell battle / With you, the winners," Tala said, in his white kimono, glaring coldly past Rei at the other pair. He sighed in relief when the chains disappeared in a wisp of smoke.

"We accept, if you give us your name," Seimei said. With both sides distracted, Rei scrambled to his knees, crawling off to the side.

"We," Kai said, taking Tala's hand, "are merciless and ruthless."

"We," Tala continued, "feel nothing for our prey."

"There is no one that we treasure."

"No person we hold dear."

"We," the gray-haired teen said, "are Heartless."

"I didn't see you at the Academy," Seimei said, looking down his nose at them.

"We didn't go," Tala said simply.

"Now, tell us who you are," Kai demanded, "and why you're torturing poor virgin bellboys so late at night."

Seimei shrugged. "Just killing off a useless Fighter."

"We are Beloved," Nisei said simply.

"Hmph," Tala grunted. "No declaration of your relationship? How weak you must be."

Kai looked over at Rei, his eyes narrowing. "We didn't feel a Fighter's aura before."

"I--" Rei searched for an explanation, as Kai seemed to be demanding of him. But how should he know? "I don't know anything!"

"Kai," Tala said, the word heavy with meaning.

Kai gave the redhead an impatient look. "A Fighter is someone who uses word spells in spell battles. You're a Fighter. You're untrained, even though you're a teenager. There's only one Fighter on this island that would fit that description. You must be the one we've been looking for."

Oh great. Another psycho couple has been looking for him. Great. At least he wasn't tied up any more.

"Just why is that?" Seimei asked. Nisei took a step forward, eyes narrowed in concentration.

"None of your business," Tala said, smirking.

"But it is mine!" Rei yelled, jumping to his feet. "I'm the one you're stalking! I have a fucking right to know!"

Both couples stared at him, although admittedly, they all looked unimpressed at his outburst. Rei just glared back at them, his chest heaving from his effort and the fur on his tail spiking.

Finally, Kai said, "Every Fighter has his one destined Sacrifice, the one who takes the damage is a spell battle and controls the Fighter. Right now, we're trying to recruit Loveless, and if you're really Loveless' Fighter, then we first need to recruit you. If we have you, he will follow."

"Recruit me? For what... Ritsuka?" Seimei had mentioned that Ritsuka would be taken with him, for some reason. And Kai and Tala also went by the name Heartless, and Nisei and Seimei went by Beloved... Then was Ritsuka also this Loveless they were talking about?

"No, for Soubi," Seimei said, not looking at Rei but rather at the Heartless pair. In that, he confirmed Rei's suspicions. "Soubi is Ritsuka's Fighter, although he doesn't bare the name of Loveless, and he's the strongest Fighter there is right now."

"Keh," Nisei clucked. "Can't be, otherwise you wouldn't have ditched him for me."

Seimei didn't reply. Tala and Kai were glaring at the wavy haired young man. Rei guessed that Seimei had been right. But... if there was one Fighter destined to be with one Sacrifice and vice versa, then he couldn't possibly be the Loveless Fighter if there was this Soubi. No wait, Nisei had just said that Soubi had been Seimei's Fighter... so a Sacrifice could have more than one Fighter... Rei's head was spinning. This was way too complicated! He needed a manual, or something. Some kind of cheat guide.

"However, I have a different end for him," Seimei said. "I suppose that this fight will determine what will happen to him."

Kai's eyes narrowed. "I suppose so."

Tala and Nisei started talking at the same moment, so that Rei could barely hear what either of them said. If Seimei won... he'd kill him, Rei knew that for certain. Because what... if Rei ever met this Ritsuka, he would have no room in his heart for Seimei? From what he had seen, Seimei probably never had a chance, unless he acted radically different around this Ritsuka guy. And if Kai and Tala won... they wanted to use him to recruit this Ritsuka to recruit his Fighter. And – and –

Lights flashed as lightening and fire mingled overhead. Tala was shouting what sounded like a defensive spell now. Whoever won this spell battle decided his fate –

This was insane!

Turning around, he dashed out of the park, abandoning his now forgotten okonomiyaki. He headed for the main street that led to Aoe Hotel, where he could hide in the staff housing in the basement. Or talk to Owner about getting him some professional help.

He looked over his shoulder. No one was following him, as far as he could tell. Weaving between people, and getting weird stares and queries, he didn't slow his pace. The sooner that he got home, the better.

Fighters, Sacrifices, Word Spells, Word Battles...

None of those could exist.

The ideas were delusions. The images he saw, merely illusions.

He was just... on drugs! Or he had snapped!

_Delusion_.

A false belief held despite strong evidence to the contrary. Self-deception. Common in some forms of psychosis.

_Hallucination_.

A sensory experience that does not exist outside of the mind, caused by various physical and mental disorders.

Yes, tonight was merely a hallucination because of his work. The weight of working at a brothel – no, he must have snapped before that. Working at a brothel in Tokyo was a ludicrous idea. Even after working there for a year, he still sometimes could hardly believe it. Had he snapped when that man had attacked him before Owner had saved him? Had he hallucinated this all to forget the trauma?

Or had he snapped even before that? He may still be in White Tiger Village, having snapped from the pressure of having to marry Mao with no possible escape.

He dropped to his knees, lurching forward as momentum carried him forward. Yes, that had to be it! There was no way this all could be real, any of this. He laughed. He started laughing and just couldn't stop. This all was one big joke. His whole past year hadn't even really happened! He was stuck in a hallucination. He had gone schizo.

People were gathering around him, but he didn't care. After all, they weren't real. Who cared about imaginary people? He kept on giggling. He only had enough breath left to giggle, instead of the whole throated laugh he had began with.

A woman shouted for someone to call the police. A teenage boy asked him if he was all right.

Rei just kept on giggling. "Of course I'm all right," he said between bouts. "Nothing can be wrong when nothing is real."

No wonder he always felt alone, he giggled to himself. There was only him in is mind.

Loveless...

Ha!

--

Soubi stared blankly through the small window in the door. Inside, dressed in white scrubs, laid a boy who still had his cat ears nested in a mass of dishevelled black hair. One of the attending nurses had mentioned that this boy had once had the longest hair that she had ever seen, but they had had to cut it for suicide prevention.

He had never hated someone he had never even met before so much in his life.

This was the one who would steal away his Sacrifice.

It couldn't happen.

Not again.

Never again.

Luckily, when they had returned from Goura, Soubi had found the note before Ritsuka had. It had been a near miss, but he had managed to stuff it into his pocket before Ritsuka had seen what was on it. When the twelve year old had inquired about it, he easily lied that it was just a sketch that he had accidentally left there one night when he was watching Ritsuka sleep. Even as improbable as the lie was (as Ritsuka had not slept in his room but rather in Seimei's old bed), anything that included a declaration of affection left Ritsuka hurrying to change the subject.

The note had led him here, to this sleeping boy's hospital bed. _Your Fighter is in the Mental Ward at Shinchiji Hospital, Room 35B. His name is Rei Kon._ That's all it had said, nothing about who had left the note, or why. He hoped he would never have to meet the person or people who so nearly destroyed his life. Only he would be walking out of that meeting.

Ritsuka could not know. He could never know. If he found out, it would be Seimei all over again. He had done everything he could to be useful to that man. He would have done anything for him. His hand unconsciously rose to the bandages at his neck. Yet, Seimei had still left when he had found the real Beloved Fighter. And Ritsuka would do the same.

As he left through the front doors, he tore up the note.

Later that night, he would tear that boy up.

He pushed away guilty thoughts about the murder of an innocent boy. It was the only option he had left to him.

It was the only thing that would guarantee that he would belong to Ritsuka, forever and ever.

Forever and ever.

Never again.

_The end._


End file.
